A story from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave bassist Tim Commerford’s friend who managed the Lazy Daisy Cafe about Mos Def allegedly rejecting an offer to work with Rage Against The Machine members following Zack de la Rocha’s 2000 exit has surfaced. If the story is true and it had worked out, Mos Def could have fronted a Rage Against The Machine reunion after a short hiatus. Chris Cornell ended up joining what became Audioslave in 2001, and the band was together until splitting in 2007 as the Rage Against The Machine reunion was announced.
“I wanna share with your AUDIENCE and fans part of my life story regarding AUDIOSLAVE and CHRIS CORNELL (the man that ‘stole’ my bike).
GREAT LOSS. Sending love to everyone in the world today (the soul of a man is deeper than the abyss…)
FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS: Here is my private story that I was keeping to share with the world later, wayyyy later.
Back in the year 2001, when I used to be the last main face of the Lazy Daisy Cafe (owned by Tim Commerford from Rage), he had bought the legendary Beatnik Cafe in Santa Monica, 23rd and Pico, from us a year earlier, but I stayed as a manager but mostly as a FRIEND. I remember that night when Tim announced to me the BIG secret. We found a new singer. A month earlier ‘we’ I mean he, was begging Mos Def, somewhere in Hollywood- MTV studios, to accept the position as the new singer of Rage Against The Machine replacing Zack de la Rocha.
‘I’m way too busy’ I remember Mos saying. So Tim couldn’t hide his happiness that night…like someone that just hit the jackpot. ‘We got a new singer, guess…’ ‘Method Man?’ I replied in confusion. ‘No, try again.’ I missed it again, and then he screamed: ‘Kornelius, Kornelius, Kornelius!’ I didn’t get it right away to be honest…I didn’t understand that he was talking about CHRIS CORNELL and the future MEGA rock band AUDIOSLAVE.”
